Design*Sponge deck, detailing a complete overhaul of the site.

1. User Experience // Janell McCanna

2. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………3
Current Site Screenshot……………………………………………………………………………4
Personas……………………………………………………………………………………5
Personas Introduction………………………………………………………………………………6
Comparison Chart…………………………………………………………………………………….7
“The Hipster”……………………………………………………………………………………………8
“The Etsy Star”…………………………………………………………………………………………9
Heuristics………………………………………………………………………………..10
Heuristics Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..11
Analysis Table…………………………………………………………………………………………12
Sitemaps………………………………………………………………………………….13
Current Sitemap………………………………………………………………………………..……14
Revamped Sitemap………………………………….………………………………………………15
Wireframes………………………………………………………………………………16
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….…………17
Sketches………………………………………………………………………………………………….18
Homepage……………………………………………………………………………………………….19
Navigation…………………………………………………………………………………………….…20
Article……………………………………………………………………………………………………..21
Table of Contents

3. Introduction: I chose to go with a design
blog called ‘Design*Sponge’. As a consistent
reader of this website, I’ve felt it’s needed a
revamp for quite a while, and during the
first week of class, they did just that.
Unfortunately, my excitement was short-
lived; while the site looked pretty, the
functionality was still not there.

4. Screenshot:
Portion of
website

5. Personas

6. Persona Introduction: To find the users, I
started by establishing their age. I
discovered some research regarding the
demographics from a similar website. From
there, I took that data and expanded upon
it to create the profile for the primary and
secondary users.

7. Primary User Secondary User
Who: Interior Design Enthusiasts
Designers, Artists, Event Planners,
Vendors, Authors, etc.
Demo:
21-34
Women
Married or long-term relationship
College educated
Creative job or hobby
25-40
Mostly women
College Educated
Smaller to mid-sized, indie companies
Use: Desktop & Tablet Desktop
How
Utilized:
Stay on top of trends
Get ideas for DIYs to try
Find art, furniture, fabrics, etc.
Discover recipes to try (especially
for hosting parties)
Receive tips on home matters
(cleaning, painting, gardening, etc.)
Read about designers
Get a look into other people’s spaces
Find inspiration
Promote their product/service
Create trends
Gather information on what is
successful
Develop business opportunities

8. Name: Anna
Age: 25
Occupation: Graphic Designer
Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Marital Status: Engaged
Hobbies: Painting, knitting,
ukulele, and reading
Influencers: Jonathan Adler,
Brad Ford, Beyonce, Lena
Dunham, David Carson, Paul
Rand, So Haute Blog, Lauren
Conrad, Refinery29
The Hipster
//Behaviors//
Social Media Accounts
Brand Loyalty
Few
M
any
Few
M
any
Hours Spent Creating
Few
M
any
Comments on Blogs
Few
M
any
I just moved in with my fiancé, and we want our new place to really “wow”
our friends. We want to stay away from a cookie-cuter aesthetic. We love
getting unique pieces that support small businesses.
“
”

9. Name: Lilly
Age: 31
Occupation: Textile Designer
Education: Bachelor’s Degree
Marital Status: Married
Hobbies: Sewing, running,
gardening, cooking, coffee
Influencers: Studio Bon,
Dwell, Spoonflower, Project
Runway, Apartment Therapy,
The Littlest, Amy Poehler,
Emma Watson, Jon Stewart
The Etsy Star
Times Partnered with Blogs
Customer Loyals
Few
M
any
Few
M
any
Hours Networking
Few
M
any
Hours Spent Creating
Few
M
any
The textiles I create have gotten quite a lot more traction since I ramped up
my partnerships with various blogs. The blogs I follow personally inspire me
with many new ideas for color combos or textures. I’ve been able to be at the
forefront of several trends because of the people I work with.
“
”
//Behaviors//

10. Heuristics

11. Heuristics Introduction: Going through
each section of the checklist, I found that
Design Sponge faired pretty well in
satisfying the criteria. Unfortunately, the
places where they lack are really what
leads to some of the poor functionality of
the website overall.

13. Sitemaps

14. 3.2
DIY Projects
3.1
Before & After
2.0
Interiors
3.0
DIY
4.0
Food & Drink
5.0
Travel
6.0
Life & Business
7.0
101 Guides
8.0
Columns
8.1
A Day In the Life
8.2
Living In
8.3
Sights & Songs
8.4
Past & Present
8.5
Before & After
8.6
Style Icon
8.7
Art In The Everyday
8.8
10 Second Tours
8.9
Veterans &
Starters
8.10
DIY Projects
Alternative Link
Direct Link
Multiple Pages
DS VideosEssays Artwork DSHashtag HomeEC Study Tour
Products Biz Ladies Best Of the Web Essay 24 Hours In
1.0
Name
2.0
Name
2.1
Name
Home Page
Main Navigation
Web Pages
Name
Floaters (Pages That Aren’t
Connected to Any Navigation)
Current Site Map
2.1
Articles
3.1.1-X
Articles
3.2.1-X
Articles
4.1-X
Articles
5.1-X
Articles
6.1-X
Articles
7.1-X
Articles
8.1.1-X
Articles
8.2.1-X
Articles
8.3.1-X
Articles
8.4.1-X
Articles
8.7.1-X
Articles
8.6.1-X
Articles
8.9.1-X
Articles
8.8.1-X
Articles
2.1.1-X
Name
1.0
Home
Shop Tour

15. 3.2
Projects
3.1
Before & After
2.0
Tours
3.0
DIY
4.0
Food & Drink
5.0
Travel
6.0
Profiles
7.0
Design
8.0
D*S
6.4
A Day In the Life
7.4
Art In The Everyday
6.6
Sights & Songs
6.5
Style Icon
6.2
Veterans &
Starters
6.1
Life & Business
Direct Link
Multiple Pages
1.0
Name
2.0
Name
2.1
Name
Home Page
Main Navigation
Web Pages
Revamped Site Map
2.1.1 - X
Articles
2.2.1 - X
Articles
2.3.1 - X
Articles
3.3
Home Ec
3.4
101 Guides
2.4.1 - X
Articles
2.1
Interiors
2.2
Shop Tours
2.3
Studio Tours
2.4
10 Sec Tours
3.1.1 - X
Articles
3.2.1 - X
Articles
3.3.1 - X
Articles
3.4.1 - X
Articles
4.1 - X
Articles
5.2
City Guides
5.1
24 Hours In 5.1.1 - X
Articles
5.2.1 - X
Articles
6.3
Biz Ladies
6.1.1 - X
Articles
6.2.1 - X
Articles
6.3.1 - X
Articles
6.4.1 - X
Articles
6.5.1 - X
Articles
6.6.1 - X
Articles
7.1
Products
7.2
Artwork
7.3
Living In
7.1.1 - X
Articles
7.2.1 - X
Articles
7.3.1 - X
Articles
7.4.1 - X
Articles
8.2
DS Videos
8.1
Past & Present
8.3
DS Hashtag
8.4
Best of the Week
8.1.1 - X
Articles
8.2.1 - X
Articles
8.3.1 - X
Articles
8.4.1 - X
Articles
9.0
Essays
9.1.1 - X
Articles
1.0
Home
9.1.1 - X
Articles

16. Wireframes

17. Wireframes Introduction: I chose to use
Omnigraffle to build my wireframes. I found
that, when sketching the original homepage,
there was just too much going on. The latest
15 articles were listed on the first page
(including a majority of the article’s text), so
I wanted to rework it to incorporate more
visual stimulation and reduce the number of
articles seen upon arrival.

18. Homepage
Layout
Sketch

19. Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S Essays
About Contact Scholarship Advetise
Article Name
Category
5.0
1.0
2.0
6.0
4.0
6.0
5.0
3.0
2.0
1.0 Design Sponge Logo
Hero Image
Primary Navigation (Click to filter articles
by category or hover to show secondary
navigation/categories)
Article Image (Hovered State: Pink Tint & Info)
At This Point Nine More Articles Loaded
f
f
3.0
4.0 Article Image
Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S Essays
About Contact Scholarship Advetise
Article Name
Category
5.0
6.0
4.0
6.0
5.0
3.0
2.0
1.0 Design Sponge Logo
Hero Image
Primary Navigation (Click to filter articles
by category or hover to show secondary
navigation/categories)
Article Image (Hovered State: Pink Tint & Info)
At This Point Nine More Articles Load
f
f
3.0
4.0 Article Image
Homepage
Layout

20. Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S
f
Essays
1.0
2.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0 Design Sponge Logo
Hero Image
Primary Category*
Secondary Category**
Life & Business Veterans & Starters Biz Ladies A Day In The Life Style Icon Sights & Songs
3.0
4.0
* Click to filter by category or hover
to reveal secondary categories
** Click to filter by category
Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S Essays
Life & Business Veterans & Starters Biz Ladies A Day In The Life Style Icon Sights & Songs
5.0
6.0
5.0 Sticky Navigation (Expanded)
5.0 Sticky Navigation (Collapsed)
Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S
f
Essays
1.0
2.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0 Design Sponge Logo
Hero Image
Primary Category*
Secondary Category**
Life & Business Veterans & Starters Biz Ladies A Day In The Life Style Icon Sights & Songs
3.0
4.0
* Click to filter by category or hover
to reveal secondary categories
** Click to filter by category
Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S Essays
Life & Business Veterans & Starters Biz Ladies A Day In The Life Style Icon Sights & Songs
5.0
6.0
5.0 Sticky Navigation (Expanded)
5.0 Sticky Navigation (Collapsed)
Navigation
Layouts

21. named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary
s a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your
powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost
ic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem
d to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to
se there were thousands of bad Commas.
Article
Name
Category
6.0
4.0
6.0
5.0
3.0
2.0
1.0 Design Sponge Logo
Hero Image
Primary Navigation (Click to filter articles
by category or hover to show secondary
navigation/categories)
Article Info (Click through for filtered results)
Additional Article Images (Expandable Modal)
4.0 Article Main Image
Title
Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries
Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they
live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large
language ocean.
Suggested
Articles
7.0
8.0
9.0
Suggested Article Image (Hovered State: Pink Tint & Info)
6.0 Suggested Articles Area
8.0 Suggested Article Image
6.0
A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary
regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your
mouth.
Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost
unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem
Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to
do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas.
Tours DIY Food & Drink Travel Profiles Design D*S Essays
About Contact Scholarship Advetise
Article
Name
Category
5.0
1.0
2.0
6.0
4.0
6.0
5.0
3.0
2.0
1.0 Design Sponge Logo
Hero Image
Primary Navigation (Click to filter articles
by category or hover to show secondary
navigation/categories)
Article Info (Click through for filtered results)
Additional Article Images (Expandable Modal)
f
f
3.0
4.0 Article Main Image
Article Title
Author
Category
Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries
Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they
live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large
language ocean.
Suggested
Articles
Completely impact multifunctional processes and wireless supply chains. Dynamically
engage business meta-services for market-driven data. Collaboratively restore cross-
platform users before client-centered manufactured products.
Assertively evolve long-term high-impact vortals through visionary solutions.
Professionally harness standardized portals vis-a-vis resource maximizing deliverables.
Continually coordinate stand-alone applications rather than virtual communities.
Dynamically optimize fully researched results before stand-alone human capital.
Completely predominate seamless synergy via interoperable methodologies. Dramatically
provide access to fully researched infrastructures.
7.0
8.0
9.0
Suggested Article Image (Hovered State: Pink Tint & Info)
6.0 Suggested Articles Area
8.0 Suggested Article Image
6.0
f
Article Page
Layout

22. Thank you!